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Pat Tillman's Legacy(Nation Magazine)
The Nation magazine ^ | October 20. 2006 | Kevin Tillman

Posted on 10/20/2006 4:15:44 PM PDT by Dane

editorial | posted October 20, 2006 (web only) Pat Tillman's Legacy

Kevin Tillman

Former Major League Baseball player Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. This article originally appeared on Truthdig. It is Pat Tillman's birthday November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice.... until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can't be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few "bad apples" in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It's interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers who die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don't be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that "somehow" was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat's birthday.


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans; Politics
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; iraq; kevintillman; pattillman; tillman; wot
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To: Yossarian
So all I can do is offer him condolences for his loss, relate to his justifiable anger over the lies told about his brother's loss, and point out how the points he makes in this piece are horribly mistaken.

Nice summation. It's sad that he's become a tool of the Left.

61 posted on 10/21/2006 9:37:29 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: AnnaZ; Dane; feinswinesuksass

I couldn't have said it better. Thanks, Anna.


62 posted on 10/21/2006 9:44:29 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Dane

Just woke up & read your posts.

WAYR?


63 posted on 10/21/2006 10:03:48 AM PDT by Feiny (Save the Whales. Collect the whole set.)
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To: AnnaZ; feinswinesuksass

Anna, your reply #54 is so "hot", just ask feinswines.


64 posted on 10/21/2006 12:43:08 PM PDT by Dane ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" Ronald Reagan, 1987)
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To: Dane

... a whiny footnote to diminish the heroic memory of An American Patriot.


65 posted on 10/21/2006 12:46:12 PM PDT by Beowulf
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To: Dane

Paging Chris Hitchens. Say, what's the difference between "The Nation" and "Atlantic Monthly"? I get them mixed up, admittedly.


66 posted on 10/21/2006 12:47:35 PM PDT by IslandJeff (FR mail me to be added to the Type I Diabetes ping list)
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To: Beowulf
The September 25, 2005 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reported that Tillman held views which were critical of the Iraq war and did not support President Bush's re-election. According to Tillman's mother, a friend of Tillman had arranged a meeting with Noam Chomsky, to take place after his return from Afghanistan. Chomsky confirmed this. The article also reported that Tillman urged a soldier in his platoon to vote for John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. Presidential election.

In 2006, Tillman's brother Kevin condemned "the illegal invasion" of Iraq and the "incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals ... in charge of this country." Noting that the midterm election would take place the day after Pat's birthday, he expressed the hope that people would "take action".

Link

What's next? A conspiracy plot? Bush learns of Tillman's anti-war views and orders his assassination?

67 posted on 10/21/2006 1:09:45 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: Dane

AnnaZ is so hot

Dane is snot


68 posted on 10/21/2006 2:20:00 PM PDT by Feiny (Save the Whales. Collect the whole set.)
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To: daybreakcoming
He sounds a lot like the leftist who laughed at Pat's death and said he got what he deserved.The military screwed up real bad with Pat's death but nobody mocked it more than Ted Rall and the Chomsky loving liberals.
69 posted on 10/21/2006 3:09:59 PM PDT by peeps36 (Rebuild Iraq's Army And Send It Over To Kick Iran In The Teeth)
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To: peeps36

Rall changed his mind and admitted he was mistaken after Tillman shifted from being right wing poster child to a left wing poster child.


70 posted on 10/21/2006 4:54:29 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: feinswinesuksass

Yes he does have the right to write whatever he pleases. However he didn't just wake up a couple of days ago and decide that now I'm hurting so much I just have to sit down and vent my anguished feelings two weeks before a critical election. This piece was bought by truthdig.com or org, whose co-founder is ex-LA Times columnist,Robert Scheer, a far lefty that Discover the Network says is connected to George Soros and in all likelihood is getting money from Soros. This is just another attempt to influence the election by bringing up bad feelings about the Army and against the war. This is not grief speaking. This is the voiice of code pink and every piece of far left, liberal, communist trash that wants to blame America and acts like the real enemy either doesn't exist or is the victim. I thank him and his brother that they had the courage to sign up and fight and I'm sorry that Pat died in awful circumstances but I have no respect for anyone that willingly sells himself to express this kind of garbage.


71 posted on 10/21/2006 8:04:13 PM PDT by Albertafriend
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To: defenderSD

Check out this link:

http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2005/10/friendly_fire.htm

Unfortunately, it's true and I was very disdappointed when I found this out.


72 posted on 10/21/2006 8:06:38 PM PDT by Albertafriend
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To: Cannonette

ping


73 posted on 10/21/2006 9:25:17 PM PDT by Cannoneer No. 4 (Either we bring them freedom, or they destroy us.)
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To: All
I'll take a single Chomsky readin' Pat Tillman over a hundred Coulter readin' paper tigers any day of the week.

Bad news for you, buckwheat. There's a LOT more servicemen and women reading Coulter than Chomsky, any day.

The simple fact is that leftists are, as a group, less patriotic that conservatives. Leftists are far less likely to serve in the armed forces that those from the right.

The fact is, you'd have to search through the posessions of a lot of servicemember's copies of Coulter to even find a Chomsky.

Take them facts to bank, bucky.

74 posted on 10/21/2006 9:34:54 PM PDT by BFM (CLINTON is and always will be a rapist. Never forget!)
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To: Albertafriend
There's an insinuation in that article from The Nation that the Army killed Tillman to prevent him from speaking out with Chomsky. I strongly doubt that the US army shot Tillman intentionally. The article says that Pat's mother confirms that this meeting with Chomsky was going to occur, but I have doubts about that statement in the article. Tillman was a free thinker but he wasn't a trouble-maker or a dissident in his past. He was a disciplined man who worked well within his college and professional football teams and I think he was unlikely to be planning any public statements with Chomsky. I also doubt that if he had set up a meeting with Chomsky, he would have told his mother about that meeting. I would think that a meeting like that wouldn't be important enough to bring up in a conversation with his parents. I'd like to hear his mother confirm that information in person.

Finally, even if he had set up a meeting with Chomsky and the Army knew about it, I doubt that the Army would have considered such a meeting to be a big problem for their mission in Iraq. I have heard stories about soldiers being shot by their commanders in Vietnam for disobeying an order, but I strongly doubt that Tillman was intentionally shot by any US soldiers.

75 posted on 10/21/2006 10:59:59 PM PDT by defenderSD (Blogging from a secure, undisclosed location in the southwestern United States.)
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To: BFM

**Bad news for you, buckwheat. There's a LOT more servicemen and women reading Coulter than Chomsky, any day. **

You misunderstand what he is saying (deliberately?)
We in the military are not paper tigers and that's his point. We in the military signed up, many of us volunteering for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan, volunteering to extend our tours or go on multiple tours.

A paper tiger conversely is some chest beater who lacks the conviction to make the sacrifice, talks the Coulter talk but isn't willing to walk it. Still entitled to their opinion but I often raise an eyebrow when they engage me in conversation, telling me of their support for the war and then I note they are in their 20's or 30's but "too busy" to go downrange with the rest of us.

If you are in this latter category and we meet face to face, be prepared for me to embarass and shame you.


76 posted on 10/22/2006 6:42:39 AM PDT by soldier143 (Veteran OIF, getting ready to go back again (put me in coach I"m ready to fight again))
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To: Dane

Don't be crass. This is a family website.


77 posted on 10/25/2006 4:33:11 AM PDT by LibertyGirl77
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